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Mitsubishi revamps U.S. strategy

January 23, 2011

The concept version of Mitsubishi's new global small car will debut at the Geneva motor show.

Mitsubishi plans a different U.S. model lineup and a new production strategy for its assembly plant in Normal, Ill., as it shifts emphasis away from regionally focused vehicles to global small cars, hybrids and electrics.

Shinichi Kurihara, CEO of Mitsubishi Motors North America, says the company will launch four new models in the United States within three years, as four slow-selling U.S.-built vehicles are phased out of production by 2014.

The i electric car--sold in other countries as the i-MiEV--will go on sale here this fall.

In 2013, a production version of Mitsubishi's new global small car will arrive in the United States. A concept version of the car will debut at the Geneva auto show in March.

A plug-in hybrid crossover and another hybrid vehicle are also planned within the next three years, Kurihara wrote in an e-mail to Automotive News.

"There will be additional new products that will be announced within the year that we feel will help our dealers appeal to a wider variety of customers," Kurihara said.

As part of a new global business plan announced last week, Mitsubishi plans to launch five plug-in hybrids and three electric vehicles for worldwide sale by the end of 2015.

Production of the Galant, Endeavor, Eclipse and Eclipse Spyder will end in Normal by 2014. Those vehicles accounted for about 36 percent of Mitsubishi's 55,683 units sold in 2010.

The four vehicles will not be directly replaced. Instead, the plant will build either the Lancer sedan or Outlander and Outlander Sport crossovers or a combination of the vehicles, which share the same platform.

Mitsubishi&#8217;s i-MIEV will go on sale in North America this fall.

The Lancer is a compact sedan, while the Galant is a mid-sized sedan. The Outlander and Endeavor mid-sized crossovers are comparable in size, but the Outlander Sport is smaller, fitting in the growing compact cross-over segment.

The changes at Mitsubishi's sole U.S. assembly plant are part of a strategy to end production of regional models and instead manufacture vehicles that can be sold globally on fewer platforms.

"With the debut of this midterm plan, there are product plans, marketing plans and brand strategy plans that can be shared in the coming months that we feel can certainly help the dealer cause," Kurihara said. "There is no desire or agenda to shrink operations in the U.S. market."

North America is by far Mitsubishi's smallest and weakest market. It was the only region to see sales shrink in the first half of the current fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, 2010. Sales in emerging markets such as China and Latin America, on the other hand, are booming.

The past decade has been a rough one for Mitsubishi dealers. Mitsubishi sold more than 100,000 vehicles as recently as 2007 but in 2010 sold just 55,683.